GCSE Results Paper: Layout Explained

Written by: Angela Yates

Reviewed by: Bridgette Barrett

Published

20 December 2024

Read time

5 minutes

Illustration of a hand holding a GCSE results paper amidst loose sheets on a blue background, with text: "GCSE Results Paper: Layout Explained".

Contents

GCSE results day is your chance to find out the grades you’ve got and to celebrate your achievements. But after a long summer of waiting, when you finally get your results slip, you’ll want to know exactly what all the information on it stands for.

As a teacher, I’ve shared the joy - and occasionally the pain - of many GCSE results days. When you get your hands on your GCSE results paper, here’s what it all means.

GCSE Results Paper Layout

GCSE results paper showing grades for subjects including English, Mathematics, Science, and History, with named candidate and examination boards.

1. Personal details

At the top of your GCSE results paper, you’ll see a title such as Statement of Marks or Statement of Results. This can vary, depending on the exam board, but they all mean the same thing.

Next, you’ll see a series of headings:

Centre: The name and identifying number of your school or college.
Season: The exam series during which you sat the exams, for example, Summer 2024.
Name and date of birth: Your full name and date of birth.
Year: Your school year group, for example, Year 11.
Candidate number: The number your school or college have assigned to you to identify you to the exam boards.
ULN: Unique Learner Number. This is the unique identifier used to store all of your educational records.
UCI: Unique Candidate Identifier. This code is also unique to you and is used by all the exam boards to identify you across boards and link your results.

2. Your qualification grades

This is the part you’ll look at first! Immediately below your personal details, you’ll see each subject listed with its course code. Your grade is next to it. It shows your final grade for the whole course and will be a number between 9 (highest) and 1 (lowest).

If you took a combined science course, you’ll see two numbers here, because your combined science grades are worth two GCSEs.

3. Your qualification scores and marks

Further along the row, you may see a series of numbers. These relate to the scores you achieved for each paper and your total qualification mark. These numbers don’t appear on all results slips.

However, you may receive additional results slips from individual exam boards containing results from the subjects you sat from that exam board. They’re likely to show the breakdown of your scores, but details will vary according to the subject and the exam board. Check the sample AQA GCSE results paper and OCR GCSE results paper to help you decode the information. Your subject teacher or exams officer will be happy to explain any numbers you don’t understand.

What To Do If You Spot An Error

Check all the details on your GCSE results paper extremely carefully, including your name and date of birth. If you think there is an error in any detail, you must report this immediately to your exams officer. It’s important to correct any issues at this stage to ensure your final results certificates are accurate. If a certificate needs to be reprinted, there will be a charge.

If you see a results indicator in the qualification grades column instead of a numbered grade, please speak to your exams officer straight away. The exam board will have supplied your school or college with an explanation.

Results indicators may be displayed like this:

No result: This means you were absent from all elements of the assessment or had an invalid combination of units. You won’t see this subject on your final GCSE certificate of results.
#: Partial Absence. You submitted work for some, but not all, of the subject’s components.
Q: Pending. Your result will follow shortly.

What To Do With Your GCSE Results Paper

Your GCSE results paper is not your final set of results; it indicates your provisional results. If you wish to appeal, these grades may change. Therefore, it is not essential to keep your GCSE results paper. However, many students do. Hopefully, it’s a document you’ll be proud of, since it represents all those hours of work you put in to achieve those grades.

Your final certificates will be forwarded to your school or college about three months after GCSE results day. These are the crucial documents you will need to keep securely. You may need to produce them for employers or universities as evidence of your achievements.

Ace Your GCSEs with Save My Exams

Open your GCSE results paper with a smile by preparing well for your upcoming exams. Use our GCSE revision notes, exam questions, flashcards and past papers to get you ready to ace your GCSEs.

The earlier you start your revision, the greater your chance of success. Take a look at the full range of GCSE resources we have to ensure you reach your potential.

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